Seasonic has a huge problem with coil whine, despite whatever SPCR got as review samples, I recently bought a 660W platinum Seasonic and the coil whine is eardrum piercing high-pitch torture, audible at 5 meters (>16 feet for you North Americans). Three RMA's later (checked serial numbers, all different units) and the same problem every time. My brother had a X-650 Gold that also had coil whine (more of a turbulent less high-pitch noise though, less annoying than the Platinum at least). I'm done with Seasonic and all manufacturers that source their parts from Seasonic. It's not worth the headache.

I've heard nothing about coil whine on the Super Flower or the Kingwin on the other hand.

Seasonic has a huge problem with coil whine, despite whatever SPCR got as review samples, I recently bought a 660W platinum Seasonic and the coil whine is eardrum piercing high-pitch torture, audible at 5 meters (>16 feet for you North Americans). Three RMA's later (checked serial numbers, all different units) and the same problem every time. My brother had a X-650 Gold that also had coil whine (more of a turbulent less high-pitch noise though, less annoying than the Platinum at least). I'm done with Seasonic and all manufacturers that source their parts from Seasonic. It's not worth the headache.

I've heard nothing about coil whine on the Super Flower or the Kingwin on the other hand.

I've posted a thread recently about my experience with 660XP2 - same thing. It was unbearable and I stopped at 2 units. Finally, what I chose was Fractal Design Newton R3 800W (overkill for my system) and there's only a very small amount of coil whine / noise, which is inaudible from a 1 meter.

I've heard nothing about coil whine on the Super Flower or the Kingwin on the other hand.

While i havent tested directly anything from Kingwin, it also isnt coil/whine free, i read some user reviews that point into it, for example, Newegg user reviews of Kingiwn 550W

Quote:

High-pitched whinePros: None so farCons: I was hoping this wouldn't happen to me, but my PSU is producing the high-pitched whine others have mentioned. Not 100% modular

Quote:

High Pitch WhinePros: It...supplies power.Cons: I purchased this exorbitantly priced PSU precisely because I wanted to avoid the high pitched coil whine. My unit is VERY audible.My trust was misplaced.

This power supply works great, except for a very high-pitched whine some people can hear. Now a word of caution before you switch to any fanless power supply. Consider what it will do to the airflow inside your case. You'll be taking away a major source of cooling, replacing it with additional heat which will somehow need to be removed. (Note the big heat sink on the side of this power supply. Where do you suppose that heat is going to go? Yup, into your case.) That's a double-whammy many people don't consider. After I installed this unit, the temperature inside my case went up considerably, necessitating adding another fan. Now my computer is even noisier than before! So what was the point of my buying a fanless power supply???

Since KingWin sells an almost identical unit with a virtually silent fan, I recommend considering getting that instead. It's quite a bit cheaper, and will keep your system significantly cooler. As a computer geek with gobs of experience, I can tell you the biggest threat to your system is heat. Want your system's components to give you years of trouble-free service? KEEP THEM COOL!!!

P.S. If you have one of the newer CPUs and motherboards in your system, this power supply may work just fine. Unfortunately, I built my own HTPC/DVR way back in 2006. Its now ancient Pentium D 805 CPU alone can easily generate 95 watts. Add that to the old front-side bus on the motherboard and memory modules with their own cooling fins, and I have a virtual toaster-oven inside my computer's case! So for me at least, a fanless power supply wasn't such a good idea..

I still think Kingwin/Superflower is a better choice, but at the same time im not sure its totally Seasonic fault, i feel its more a combo of hardware that makes the PSU whine/coil. I own a X-660 and X-400 and i dont have any coil whine

Yet the Seasonic 660XP is on a league of it's own as far as coil whine goes, it's not even a buzz, it's a squeal, so high-pitched that older folks probably can't hear it. The X-650 had a bit of an annoying buzz going on for sure, but it was far more pleasant than the 660XP. It also went away when the computer was in sleep mode, not so for the 660XP! Even after I shut down my computer completely (which I had to do since the sound in sleep mode was robbing me of my sanity) it keeps squealing for another 10-15 seconds. Also a bonus for the X-650: the buzz disappears completely if you wear headphones.

If you want to go for Seasonic, I'd recommend the Gold models, the Platinum ones are doing something very, very wrong to increase efficiency, and making the noise even more audible and high-pitched.

I'm in the process of getting a Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W. One guy has reported some coil whine under light and medium loads, but silence at idle. Since I keep the power supply about 1.5 meters away and there is a big desk in between the PSU and my ear, I pray to god that it'll be inaudible. But who knows.

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